HEAL FOR YOURSELF by Ocholoda Moses

Everyone talks about healing. It’s trending. It’s aesthetic. It’s on mugs and TikTok sounds and
thread posts with 10k likes. But nobody talks about the cost of refusing to do it. Nobody warns
you what happens when you let those words rot inside you instead of pulling them out. When
you don’t heal from the people who called you ugly, from the friends who laughed, from the
parent who said it as a joke, from the partner who whispered it during a fight, you don’t just stay
hurt. You become a carrier. You walk around with that infection in your mouth, and eventually,
you start giving it to other people.
You’ll see a girl glowing and your first thought won’t be “she’s beautiful.” It’ll be “find the
flaw.” You’ll scan her face for acne, her body for weight, her outfit for a mistake, just so your
brain can whisper “I’m still better.” You’ll throw shade and call it honesty. You’ll post screenshots
and call it accountability. You’ll compete with strangers you don’t even know because unhealed
pain needs someone to be losing for you to feel like you’re winning. That’s the tax. You don’t
heal for the people who broke you. You heal so you don’t spend your whole life trying to break
other people. You heal so you can see beauty without feeling threatened. You heal so you stop
needing someone else to be small for you to feel big. Because hurt people hurt people. But
healed people? Healed people set people free. Including themselves.